A Visit to the Bookstore
Here's what I found in the business book section of my local bookstore.
Yesterday I did some research at the local Books-A-Million (BAM!) bookstore in Southaven, Mississippi.
I was on a fact-finding mission to answer the following questions.
The Questions
How large is the business section in the bookstore?
What’s the overall color scheme of the books?
Which cover art stands out the most?
How many marketing-specific books are there?
What size book looks best/feels best (i.e. weight, page count, dimensions)?
The Results
Despite there being around eight million businesses (most small) in the United States, according to the US Census Bureau, there was just one aisle of business books at BAM (photo at top). This is true of many bookstores I’ve visited. The good news is, when you search “business” at an online book seller, you’ll receive upwards of 70,000 results. So, no shortage of books available.
As for a book color scheme or theme in the business aisle, my eyes immediately picked up on yellow, red, and orange. there were a lot of “For Dummies” books that featured bright yellow on the spine to catch your attention. Smart.
Cover art was simple, using text as a design element instead of people, graphs, or photography. White space was a welcome element as well.
Marketing-specific books were few and far between. I counted maybe 3 to 5, and nothing that was specifically geared toward restaurant marketing.
The size was a big factor. The little books were basically swallowed up by the bigger ones. Anything under 150 pages got lost. The books that attempted to do something “different” by creating a different shape such as square or oblong weren’t very successful in my opinion. The best size/shape seemed to be about 6”x9” and around 250 pages in length. I prefer the feel of a paperback, but both were available.
Overall, a great fact-finding visit and one that will help in the planning of my own book’s interior/exterior design.
Do you have any additional insights or thoughts on this topic? Let me know in the comments.
And thank you to everyone who has reached out already with ideas and resources. I follow up on every tip and all are appreciated.
—Liz